Free WordPress Hosting Providers: 6 Websites, Pros and Cons

Have you ever thought about free WordPress hosting?

Alternatively, can you host your website on the Internet for free?

Well, it sounds interesting. However, free web hosting services allow you to create websites using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS).

Having a space on the internet is the dream of everyone. I recall the days when I thought it required hundreds or thousands of dollars to host a website or blog on the internet.

However, those days are gone, as many web hosting providers have started offering free web space to everyone worldwide.

If you have the ambition to be the next professional blogger or Internet marketer, you can start from scratch to build your dream and convert it into reality.

You are the NEXT Pro Blogger! You can do that. I don’t want to mislead you by recommending free WordPress hosting here. They have numerous limitations and can hinder your ability to be a successful entrepreneur. What I recommend is to buy inexpensive WordPress hosting. 

Bluehost is my top choice, and I would recommend it to anyone. Unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer, and user-friendly cPanel are among their standout features. Bluehost WordPress hosting offers a 1-click auto-installer tool that makes it super easy to start your blog today. 

What is free WordPress hosting?

I know some of you might think you have to pay for everything you do online. However, that is not true.

For instance, you can start making money online without spending money. You can do joint ventures with other marketers, engage in freelancing in workshops such as Fiverr and Freelancer, and write for other blogs to make extra cash.

Alternatively, you can make a theme, plugin, or mobile application to create residual income from home. All these tasks can be accomplished without incurring any expenses on marketing or promotion.

However, it is not right to create a website or blog using the WordPress blogging platform. There are many factors to consider when making a blog for various purposes. (ex, eCommerce website, photoblog, Internet marketing blog)

Starting a WordPress blog, like beginning a Udemy course, is challenging. Of course, you can outsource everything to get everything done very easily. However, the budget you have to spend is greater on building a website with WordPress CMS. That is where free WordPress hosting comes into play.

As a seasoned individual in this complex world, there is nothing for free. However, as a beginner in Online marketing, you can start your WordPress blog quickly with the help of free WordPress blog hosting services.

Free WordPress hosting service providers give away a certain amount of web space, monthly bandwidth, tools, and other equipment you need to make a WordPress self-hosted blog.

Hosted WordPress Hosting vs. Self-hosted WordPress Hosting

There are two types of WordPress blogs. If you have a blog designed using the WordPress.com blogging system (a free blogging platform), it falls under Hosted WordPress blogs. On the other hand, all WordPress websites and blogs hosted on third-party web servers are self-hosted sites.

Quality	Hosted WordPress Blog	Self-hosted WordPress Blog
Full Control	You have 100% control of your site. This may differ from one web host to another. For example, managed WordPress hosting services limit the use of specific heavyweight plugins.	You have 100% control of your site. This may differ from one web host to another. For example, managed WordPress hosting services limit specific heavyweight plugins.
Restrictions	A lot of restrictions. Even if you get a free blog from WordPress.com, it is better to use the Blogger blogging platform in this case.	No restrictions. You own your website.
Scalability	Very lower. It slows down business growth for several reasons, including slow loading times.	Only you can stop growing your blog. Just you!

Benefits of Free WordPress Hosting

There are many advantages to using a free website hosting service. A few of those extraordinary uses are given below.

You are a novice to Internet marketing or blogging

When I first started blogging, I chose Blogger as my blogging platform. I was curious enough to explore everything I could do with Google Blogger.

Like me, if you’re a beginner at blogging, a better way to gain experience with the world’s best CMS, WordPress, is to opt for a free WordPress web hosting service.

That is not a must. However, as a beginner, to avoid hesitation, understand what blogging is, how it works, and what components you should have to stand out from the competition. You should pick the best free WordPress service to host your test WP blog without worrying too much about the facilities and tools they provide.

You may not be familiar with WordPress CMS.

I still remember when I first migrated Pitiya from Blogger to WordPress. Yes, I have a little experience with WordPress and how it works. However, in my mind, I had a big fear of various things. I was unfamiliar with MySQL, WordPress theme design, and what to do when my website went down.

These thoughts delay my migration to WordPress. However, AS I knew, my first web hosting company, Bluehost, had an excellent reputation for extensive resources for maintaining a WordPress blog successfully. They have specialized WordPress experts.

If you are like me and don’t know much more about coding, you can choose a good free WordPress blog hosting provider to host your WordPress blog. There you can learn lots of things, such as;

• How to install a WordPress theme or plugin and customize the code (without worrying about breaking down your WP blog).
• How to map a custom domain to your blog.
• How to design your WordPress theme.
• How to SEO optimize your WordPress blog.
• How to speed up your blog with or without using plugins.
• How search engine optimization works.

Why is Free WordPress hosting?

I receive a few emails per month asking me how to create a website, which blogging platform I use, and how to set up a blog without spending money.

If you want to build a website using WordPress from scratch, test-drive a plugin and/or theme, and understand how WordPress works, you may opt for a free WordPress hosting service.

Initially, I also used a few top WordPress free hosting services. Some are top-notch services. They provided me with cPanel, the ability to add a custom domain (not free of charge), CDN support, FTP access, and WordPress support.

However, not all free WordPress hosting providers offer add-ons. You should consider buying or upgrading to a Premium plan to experience the full power of these features.

Disadvantages of Free Blog Hosting Services

Even though there are benefits to using a free blog hosting service to create your WordPress blog, it is not always recommended to opt for a free web hosting provider. Why? Here are some of those obvious reasons.

You do not have the control.

What matters if you don’t have control over your website, even if it offers free web space, unlimited bandwidth, cPanel, a custom domain, and other features?

Nothing, right? That is why you should opt for premium WordPress hosting rather than signing up for a free hosting service.

If you are asked to sign up for a free hosting website that claims to provide free WordPress hosting with a domain name, you should think thrice about it before making any decision.

Here’s why:

They can terminate your account permanently without prior notice

Yes, many free WordPress hosting sites have specified in their terms of service that they can close your web hosting account without prior notice. So, how do you get your website back? Nothing to do with your hand. 

You cannot change the Domain DNS records.

If you are wondering whether you can create another WordPress blog for a subdomain name (for your custom domain), don’t worry. Some web hosts do not provide that feature. Why? Because they do not want to give you complete authority over your site.

You cannot allow or block IP addresses.

Think about this for a moment. You have done everything right; installed WordPress on the server, mapped the custom domain, published a few posts, and customized your blog theme perfectly. You get up earlier the next day to see your blog’s performance. Suddenly, you hit a page that displays your IP address is blocked! What can you do under these circumstances?

If you want complete control of your site, choosing a free web host is not the best option.

Cancellation of your account at any time

Do you have a groundbreaking idea that has never been discussed on the internet? Is it a hot topic? So, there’s no doubt that your website will receive a significant amount of traffic from search engines and referral websites.

However, free WordPress hosting servers cannot handle that amount of traffic effectively. They will immediately send you an email mentioning that you have TWO options.

• Upgrade to a premium hosting package.
• Alternatively, we will close your account.

What option seriously has a greater possibility of happening? The second one, right? Even if you buy WordPress hosting from that company, it will not be as good as WordPress-optimized hosting services worldwide.

Doesn’t have a professional look

I think you will agree that most websites hosted on free WordPress hosting servers often lack a professional appearance.

How do you calculate the professional look of a website?

Theme design plays a crucial role in establishing a professional appearance. However, it is not the only key to consider when it comes to online marketing. Here are a few characteristics of a well-made website;

• Have a custom domain:
• Loads website faster:
• Rank higher on SERPs (search engine result pages) for competitive keywords:
• Have a good-looking social profile:
• Quality content made by real people:

Even if you opt for the most affordable WordPress hosting package, you will still receive additional features to enhance your website’s professionalism. Those you cannot get with any free web hosting service.

No future in business

If you had a dream to make passive income through blogging and chose a free WordPress website hosting company to get you on the right path, let me explain this to you.

Never think that you can get everything for free. This also applies to the business world. If you have the plan to start a WordPress blog on a free WP hosting platform and then make some real money, first visit a few internet marketing forums for a moment and read a few of those “How to earn money through my blog” or “how to monetize my blog” threads.

You can find thousands of such appealing posts. Even websites hosted on premium web servers cannot generate significant revenue. Why? Marketing has undergone substantial changes over the last few decades.

More factors come into play when a customer considers a purchase. If you want to run a business, whether it’s an e-commerce website, a website portal, a service blog, or a portfolio to showcase your work, you should not opt for a free WordPress hosting service.

Why? Because people think of many more things than you assume:

1. Your website’s reputation: How familiar the website is to them.
2. Website’s professionalism: As I explained above, the theme design and custom domain are crucial.
3. The credibility of the website: The technical aspects of a site, such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), also contribute to successful conversion.
4. Server load time: Do you purchase a product from a website that takes hours to load? I do not. Do you?
5. User-friendliness: The whitespaces of web pages and other important aspects, such as visual content and colors, influence lower cart abandonment.

You cannot make money without spending money. You have to choose one of these two choices. To run a long-term business, selecting a free WordPress hosting service as the infrastructure is not the most intelligent decision you will ever make.

Best Alternative to FREE WordPress Blog Hosting

Free blog hosts are suitable for beginners who want to learn WordPress and get hands-on experience. However, in reality, no free WordPress hosting is 100%. It is just another scheme for making money online. The tactic here is to lure as many customers as possible to push more promotions and generate revenue.

If you want to convert your dream into reality and plans into actual results, then you must go for premium WordPress hosting.

Why?

Because premium WordPress hostings offer many tools to build your blog, from cPanel to file manager and from shared hosting servers to dedicated, cloud, or VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting servers, they provide all the tools and services you want.

The best alternative to Free WordPress Hosting

You are here because you want to start a WordPress blog on a small budget.

I recommend choosing a reputable, reliable, and affordable WordPress hosting service provider, such as BlueHost.

BlueHost is the best alternative to free WordPress hosting. Here are a few of those amazing features of BlueHost WordPress hosting.

• Ideal for beginners
• Free domain name for the 1st year
• 1-Click installation of WordPress
• Free CDN
• Managed WordPress Updates
• WordPress staging site
• Money-back guarantee
• 24x7x365 customer service
• Officially recommended by WordPress.org as the best WordPress hosting since 2005!

Click here to get BlueHost WordPress hosting.

Common Signs of Every FREE WordPress Hosting Service

Before reading about the best free WordPress hosts, take these typical signs seriously. This differentiates free WordPress hosting from WordPress-optimized hosting.

Irritating Advertising

As a part of offering free web hosting, many free web hosting providers advertise on your website. You cannot control this without paying a fee or upgrading to a premium plan.

You may need to place advertisements on your website to generate revenue. However, showing up irritating ads (banner ads, slide-in ads, pop-up ads, and video ads) can harm your online reputation, and worse, it can put down your SERP rankings. So, if you want to run a successful blog to make money, then choosing free WordPress hosting might be the maddest idea.

The inability to map Your Custom Domain

Many free WordPress web hosting services offer domain mapping as a premium feature. Therefore, if you want to add your domain to your blog, you cannot do so with most free WordPress hosting services.

The worst thing is that you get a subdomain similar to http://yourdreamname.freewebhoster.com. This domain might have thousands of websites that distribute pirated software, malicious products, and promotional content related to porn, guns, drugs, etc.

These drawbacks will hinder your success as a marketer and significantly waste your time.

Customer Support is bad.

This is one of the key factors I consider when choosing a web hosting company. What even matters if you cannot get help about an issue from the web hosting company? Nothing matters, right?

Many premium web hosting services have outstanding customer service. They use various communication methods, including online chat, email, Skype calls, and phone calls. The best part is that most of them are available 24/7, 365 days a year.

However, on the other hand, free web hosting companies often lack excellent customer service. It could take from a few hours to a few days to get a response to the message.

Space and bandwidth are limited.

Many WordPress free hosting services have an absolute limit on free web space and bandwidth.

Webspace refers to the total storage capacity of your web content. It includes your blog post text, images, videos, plugins, and all other utilities.

When someone reaches your website, the web browser requests the content. Therefore, the higher your web pages’ storage capacity, the higher the required bandwidth. Although some free web hosts claim to provide unlimited bandwidth, this is not typically the case. There is no such thing as “Unlimited Bandwidth” in web hosting.

If your website consumes excessive server resources (by generating more content), the web hosting company may ask you to upgrade to a premium plan or terminate your account.

Weakness of Running Certain Plugins

This might be unusual, but some free web hosting servers host thousands of websites. Additionally, some servers are not upgraded to this generation’s technology (e.g., cloud).

So, if you found a powerful yet heavyweight plugin, then you might not be able to run it well on your blog. (ex, To build an eCommerce website, you need powerful plugins that require a well-developed infrastructure. As you know, free web hosts cannot run those plugins effectively.)

The long ….. …. response time

This is one of the most frustrating problems people encounter when visiting a website. To reduce server load time, you should host your site on a fast web server and perform additional technical tasks, such as utilizing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.

You do not have to wonder if your WordPress blog takes too much time to load. It is because it is hosted on a free WordPress host server.

Free WordPress Hosting is unreliable.

The trust factor comes into play not only in conversion optimization but also in WordPress hosting. Premium WordPress hosting companies, such as BlueHost, WPengine, and HostGator, have excellent brand awareness and reputations for certain aspects.

However, have you ever found positive reviews of the free WordPress hosting companies below?

That is why being a customer of reliable WordPress hosting makes you proud and inspires you to grow your online business.

It takes too much time to load web pages.

As a result of hosting hundreds or thousands of websites on the same server, your site will take too long to load. You cannot achieve a better outcome even if you use a premium CDN network, such as MaxCDN.

As Google clearly stated on its official web admins’ blog, page loading time is a ranking factor, and you should not neglect how fast your website loads. A fast website loading time will satisfy both search engines and customers, and increase your conversions by a significant margin.

Not SEO Friendly

Have you ever found a website hosted on a free web hosting server that ranks higher in SERPs? Not any day, right?

Although Google owns the BlogSpot blogging platform, we cannot find their subdomain web pages that rank higher on search engine result pages for a highly competitive keyword.

Yes, there are 200+ search engine ranking factors. However, slow load times, long response times, and a bad reputation for web hosting don’t allow your website to grow.

Shared IP addresses among other websites

Do you know that some web browsers, such as Google Chrome, block web pages that are hosted on individual servers? How does Google determine what it is?

Well, it is done through scanning IP addresses. Your web server might have one or hundreds of websites related to porn, drugs, guns, pirated programs, etc. The number doesn’t even matter. One of those sites can cause your server’s IP address to be blocked by Google.

So, if you want to run your website on an unblocked server, you should focus on another host rather than choose a free web hosting provider.

No Necessary Resources

The web hosting company should provide specific tools to build a WordPress blog. Unfortunately, some free WordPress hosting providers do not offer them. Some of those essential resources are;

• WordPress Auto Installer: If you’re new to WordPress, having the WordPress auto-install tool at your disposal is helpful.
• Access to the root directory/ FTP access.
• Software Script.
• SMTP: Sending emails.
• Options to edit DNS (Domain Name Server) records
• Last PHP version
• Technical support

The unavailability of those necessary resources will not only waste your valuable time but also leave you disappointed.

Regular Server Downtime

Who does not like to host their WordPress blog for free? With the growing number of websites hosted on the free WordPress hosting server, it will experience high traffic at certain times. (When most users request web content)

This higher number of requests will cause the server to break down. So your website will be offline at significant times of the day. That is terrible.

This is common for most free WordPress web hosting servers. No uptime guarantee is a causal thing.

Security

This is the latest, but another critical sign of every free WordPress hosting service. Even Google takes website security seriously.

Can you even think about the feeling when someone hacks your hand-made website? It gets even worse when you do not have a good support staff to resolve the issue.

If you regard your website or blog as a business, you should be concerned about its security. Not controlling your site can lead to numerous vulnerabilities, including website hacking, DDoS attacks, and hosting malicious scripts.

To make a 100% secure WordPress blog, you should opt for a premium web hosting company.

Best Free WordPress Hosting Services

x10 Hosting

X10hosting is a convenient, all-you-need, best free WordPress hosting service. It claims to provide many premium features for free. Here are a few critical features of X10Hosting.

• 300+ one-click installs, including all popular third-party scripts. (ex, WordPress auto-installer)
• The latest version of the control panel, or cPanel. (Makes it very easy for you to manage your hosting account. Ex: create new MySQL databases.)
• Advanced versions of MySQL and PHP: PHP is needed to run WordPress. You can make your website faster by using the latest PHP version and MySQL. PhpMyAdmin makes it very easy to manage MySQL databases. Therefore, even a beginner can easily learn database management.
• Free WordPress hosting, no ads: Your website will run without putting advertisements.
• Configure email inboxes and domains: Create professional emails, such as name@yourwebsite.com, and update DNS records as needed.
• R1Soft CDP Backup Facility: You can utilize a free plugin, such as a WordPress database backup, to perform daily backups. However, X10Hosting’s tool will do it for you.
• Website Builder: Want to build a website from scratch? Use a website builder to make your website on a free web hosting server quickly.
• Provides Private Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting is a fast, reliable, and 99.99% uptime guaranteed web hosting type.

Free Hosting No Ads

As the website name describes, FreeWebhostingNoAds is a 100% ads-free web hosting provider. It claims to offer things like;

• 1GB web space & 5GB bandwidth
• FTP and File Manager
• Free email address & website builder
• Custom domain mapping.
• Script installer to install popular scripts, such as Joomla, phpBB, and WordPress.

BYET Host

BYETHost makes it easy to create a WordPress blog for you with its essential tools, such as VistaPanel. It does not provide custom domain support in its free plan, but you can choose one of the free subdomains available. Here are the key features of ByeHost.

• 1,000 MB (~1 GB) disk space with 50 GB bandwidth
• Unlimited addon and parked domains, and custom CNAME manager
• Unlimited MYSQL databases and PHPMyAdmin to edit the MySQL database.
• Script installers, including WordPress auto-installer.
• Automatic HTTPS SSL (self-signed cert) on all domains.
• Free FTP software and online file manager (maximum file size is 10MB)
• Cron jobs

Biz.nf

Biz.nf is another free WordPress hosting company that claims to offer a 1-click WordPress installation and configuration. If you want to start a website from scratch, consider whether these features meet your needs.

• 1000MB disk space with 5GB data transfer per month.
• 1-click script installer to make forums (Simple Machines (SMF), phpBB forums), wiki pages (MediaWiki and Moodle), photo galleries (Zenphoto simpler media website), web stores, Drupal, Concrete5, Joomla, and WordPress sites.
• Every week, automatic data backups are performed.
• Green Web Hosting (Eco-friendly web hosting that saves energy)
• Email accounts, email aliases, and email filters.
• Limited SMTP server access.
• Anti-SPAM, Virus Protection.

AwardSpace

AwardSpace offers various plans to host your website. It includes free web hosting with PHP and MySQL. You will get this when you sign up for AwardSpace’s free package.

• 1 GB disk space with 5 GB of traffic per month.
• 1 Domain hosting with three subdomains.
• Joomla & WordPress Installer.
• PHP5, Perl/CGI-BIN, FTP access.
• 1 Email (IMAP, Webmail, and SMTP (email sending)
• 100% no ads.

100WebSpace

100WebSpace is a budget web hosting company that offers various plans to manage your online business. Their free hosting package includes these features.

• 100MB disk space plus 3GB monthly traffic transfer.
• One hosted domain, five subdomains, and 3 POP3/IMAP Email accounts.
• 1-click application installer.
• 99.99% server uptime guarantee plus SSD data caching.
• DNS managemeWebmailwebmail.
• SSL Certificate Generator.
• IP blocking and hotlinking protection.
• Password-protected directories, custom error pages, and one FTP account.

So, how do free WordPress hosting companies make money?

Don’t you think free WordPress website hosting companies don’t make money? They make money.

There are several ways; here are a few of them.

Through placing advertisements

​You cannot find an excellent free WordPress hosting without ads. Placing ads in your website’s footer, sidebar, and top header generates revenue.

Force upgrading to premium hosting packages.

Some users test-drive each free web hosting company to find the best one that matches their needs. Once they find the best one, they might upgrade to a premium package.

​Redirecting traffic to an affiliate product

​Some free web hosts come with different conditions and terms. Even though many web hosts offer services such as web space and monthly bandwidth, some companies offer them as monthly unique visitors.

So, once the website reaches that amount, the free website hosting provider will redirect them to another page. Which might be their sales page, opt-in page, or affiliate page?

For example, WPnode was one of the top free WordPress hosts in a particular period. However, a few months ago, they began redirecting their traffic to BlueHost, a low-cost WordPress hosting solution for beginners.

Through email marketing

When someone signs up on the hosting company’s website, their email address is stored on the company’s server and used by the email marketing service. This allows them to send him promotional emails. If he buys a product or service, they will make money.

Want to be a professional blogger? Here is what I recommend for you…

I have been blogging since 2012 and have gained a wealth of experience in the field. As a blogger who started from zero, I can give you two pieces of advice.

Not all free stuff are free. I will take your time and energy.To stay ahead of the competition, you should not use free stuff.

To clarify, I always recommend that my partners choose the best tools and web apps available on the internet today. What I have to say is that if you want to create a WordPress website or blog, be sure to choose a WordPress-friendly web host, whether it’s a premium one.

I started my professional WordPress blogging career on BlueHost. It is not free. However, BlueHost is a low-cost web hosting company. BlueHost offers the cheapest shared hosting for WordPress users.

Final words on free WordPress hosting sites

Like other industries, the web hosting industry has evolved significantly over the last two decades. It was a daydream to make their website a few years ago.

Luckily for you, many web hosting services now offer low-cost hosting packages. Free WordPress hosting services account for a significant portion because many bloggers and internet marketers have utilized them early in their business careers.

Although there are many advantages to free WordPress hosting, as an intelligent person, you should never focus solely on free web hosting.

The best alternative to free WordPress hosting services is BlueHost. It is a low-cost WordPress web hosting service for shared plans.

So, what do you think about free WordPress hosting? Is it the best choice for a beginner? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.